


FtPverse Christmas Special

by rarmaster



Series: FtPverse [10]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, ftpverse, technically namine + the whole hb gang are also here but eh, those three are the most important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 21:18:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2888246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riku hasn't celebrated Christmas before, and his first year is with the HB gang. Sorta just sappy Christmas + Family feels, borrowing from some of my own family's traditions. I figured I should post at least one legit FtPverse related thing to my AO3, and this best fit the bill (or, at the moment anyway).</p>
            </blockquote>





	FtPverse Christmas Special

Riku slowed his descent down the stairs, hearing first Yuffie's continuous stream of  _please oh please can we,_ then seeing Yuffie tugging on Aerith's arm and bouncing in a rare show of excitement. It was also a surprise to see Yuffie  _up_ so early, though she was still in her pajamas—fuzzy pants and a large t-shirt. Aerith was dressed, of course, fussing over the stove.

"It's a little early," Aerith said, sparing only a glance at Yuffie.

"It's  _December first!_ " Yuffie protested.

Aerith laughed. "I mean in the day! Can't you wait until after breakfast?"

" _Fine!_ " Yuffie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "But I'm not getting dressed." She trudged over to the table and plopped down in one of the chairs, kicking her feet onto the table.

"What's this about?" Riku asked, leaning against the counter across from Aerith.

"Christmas decorations," Aerith explained, with a laugh. She was making eggs.

Riku blinked. "Christmas?"

Aerith looked slowly up at him, but Yuffie beat her to the question.

"You don't know about  _Christmas!?_ " She'd sat up straight in the chair, feet falling to the ground, eyes wide in apparent shock.

"Ah, no," Riku interrupted. He scratched at his cheek. "I do know about it. I just… I can't say I've celebrated it." Real Thing had celebrated it, probably, but the memories all blurred together and weren't very clear—few of the residual memories of Real Thing's he still had were clear anymore. The concept of Christmas was, at least.

"Haven't you been here a full year, though?" Aerith asked.

"I was in Castle Oblivion last December."

"Ah."

Riku rubbed at his chin. "Are decorations common for Christmas?" He felt like the answer to his question was  _yes_ before he'd finished answering it, but Yuffie looked about ready to burst at the chance to explain Christmas, so he figured he better ask anyway and let her.

"UHHUH!" Yuffie nodded excitedly. "We never got to do a lot of it in Traverse Town but Aerith had a whole closet of stuff that was undamaged here and it was GREAT and it was SO PRETTY!" She spoke rapidly, and loudly, a wide grin across her face. "And we're gonna put the tree up after breakfast, right Aerith?"

She hardly waited for Aerith's "Right, Yuffie" before continuing.

"And then we have to go shopping for new ornaments and candy canes because this is the only time of year we can get them and I am  _out!_ " Yuffie pouted and folded her arms across her chest, though the gleam in her eyes suggested she wasn't seriously upset.

"I don't think a holiday shop's been set up yet, Yuffie." Leon was coming down the stairs, straightening his jacket. "We'll have to skip ornaments again."

"Or make ones, like we did last year," Aerith suggested. "That was fun, wasn't it?"

Now Yuffie's pout looked fairly genuine.

"You can always go to another world and get them," Riku said. He shrugged, looking between the three of them. "I mean, there's Traverse Town or Twilight Town that you can check, at the least…"

Aerith and Leon exchanged glances.

"Caaann weeee?" Yuffie asked.

"I guess, yeah," Aerith said. Yuffie broke into a grin.

"Oh  _yes!_ Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

Leon smiled and folded his arms across his chest. If he was any other person, he might have laughed, or at least chuckled, but he was Leon, so he only smiled. "If you're that excited, Yuffie, I suppose we can start playing some Christmas mus—"

"Not until we listen to Aerith's CD!" Yuffie argued, shaking her head aggressively.

Leon blinked, though Riku couldn't say he seemed very surprised. "Well, we can put that in fi—"

Yuffie shook her head again. "Not until we put up the tree!"

"I.. alright." Leon argued no further, only rolled his eyes. He slid into the kitchen to help Aerith with breakfast. Riku supposed he should've offered to help, but it was too late now—the kitchen wasn't very large, and more than two sets of hands would've been a little too much. Riku decided to head upstairs and see if Namine was awake, instead. He wouldn't want her to miss the apparent festivities.

**xxx**

Namine already knew about Christmas, as it turned out, though she seemed pretty excited about decorating. They'd done some decorating—like putting up a tree—at Kairi's house last year, but apparently not much more than that. She also mentioned to Aerith that making ornaments sounded like fun, and Aerith told her they'd maybe make a few later. They had all month, anyway.

Breakfast went by quickly enough, though it didn't look like Yuffie ate much, and Cid certainly drank more hot chocolate than he did anything else.

"Alright! I'll go dig out the boxes!" Yuffie declared, jumping up to take her plate half-full of food to the kitchen. Cid rolled his eyes, and Aerith and Leon shared exasperated looks before Leon leaned over his shoulder to call:

"Do you need help?"

The only response was Yuffie opening the door to the storage closet.

"She'll need help," Leon said. He pushed away from the table, but Riku stood up before he could get any further.

"I got it," he said. It wasn't like he'd been eating, anyway.

"I'll hand you the boxes," Yuffie called, from somewhere in the closet. Riku wasn't sure how she knew he was standing outside it. "Just pile 'em outside the door. We'll sort 'em and stuff later. Here!" Riku found a large rectangle box with the words  _Christmas Tree_ in surprisingly neat handwriting being thrust into his hands. Grunting, he took it from Yuffie and turned to set it down behind him.

The process continued with box after box, Yuffie acquiring a Santa hat about halfway through. Two boxes labeled  _ornaments,_ one labeled  _lights,_ followed by two smaller shoe boxes with  _hand-made ornaments_ scrawled in different but equally neat letters. The last of the boxes were labeled with only a vague  _Christmas decorations,_ which Riku assumed meant non-tree related things. Yuffie burst out of the closet then with a grin on her lips, bending down to grab the tree's box and dragging it closer to the center of the room.

"Where are we putting up the tree, Aerith?" she called, not that she needed to, since Aerith was already out in the living room. Leon was cleaning up in the kitchen.

"Where we always do, Yuffie, by the stairs." Aerith was laughing as she spoke, moving in a dance to the pile of boxes, taking a stack from the top to move them.

Cid walked into the room, nursing a fresh mug of hot chocolate. "Still dunno how yer gettin' it there without blocking the closet!"

"Same way we did last year, Cid!" Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him. "Riku, c'mon, we're putting the tree about there so we gotta move the boxes! Oh, hang on, I gotta get the music!" She dropped the box she'd picked up—thankfully, one that didn't sound like it had anything breakable in it—before skipping off to one of the bookshelves. Riku had honestly never seen her this happy before.

"Just roll with it," Aerith told him, quietly, as she shifted another box. "Namine, are you going to stay in the dining room forever? You don't have to come help, but you should at least come out here!"

"She's helping me in the kitchen!" Leon replied.

Riku turned, checking to see that was true. It was. Namine smiled widely at him, and he smiled back.

Yuffie had her music started up then—Riku was surprised to hear not what he'd label as a traditional Christmas carol, but something… Celtic. It sounded Celtic. Silence swept through the room as it started, and Aerith paused and closed her eyes, sighing deeply. Yuffie even moved slower as she made her way back to where they would set up the tree.

"I really like this CD," Aerith explained in a hushed voice, when Riku asked her. "Especially this song. Now shh so I can hear it."

Once the song was over, Yuffie seemed to pick up speed (and noise) again, and the tree was put up in a blur. The tree was fake, which explained why it'd been in a box. Riku didn't help much when it came to setting up, except to reach the top of the tree, since he was the tallest—though he was quite sure Leon could've reached it, or Yuffie could've, if she'd stood on the stairs. Either way, he tried to stay out of it. Yuffie seemed to have a very specific place for each ornament, anyway, and if she didn't, Aerith did.

They had nearly emptied one of the box of ornaments when Aerith paused, staring at the rest of the contents of the box she held and sighing deeply. Leon came over and put a hand on her shoulder, gently. Though his following words were meant for Aerith's ears, Riku heard them well enough.

"They should go up this year," Leon said, softly. "No sense letting them sit and gather dust. The tree's empty without them, anyway."

"That's not true," Aerith argued. Her heart didn't seem in the argument, though. Leon left her there, and Riku watched from where he was sitting, as she picked up one of the ornaments and turned it over in her hands. He wasn't sure exactly how long she sat there looking at it, but finally she got up and headed to the tree, ornament in hand. Yuffie looked surprised to see her, and moved out of her way to let her put the remaining ornaments on the tree. Cid skipped a track on the CD before it got more than three notes in.

"Here, help me with some other decorations!" Yuffie said, grabbing Riku by the hands and dragging him to his feet. She roped Namine into it, as well, and they spent the rest of the CD and well into the next one hanging up other decorations around the house. Namine held the box, Riku put things up, and Yuffie told him where to put them. Riku figured he'd only been roped in so he could reach the high spots. Leon kept sending him reassuring smiles.

**xxx**

They finished decorating the house by lunch, which Riku spent the entirety of admiring the Christmas tree. It was extremely pretty, especially once lit up. Vague and fuzzy memories tingled at the back of his mind, of other trees like this, but he pushed them away. This was his first Christmas, his first Christmas tree, and he'd remember it with his own memories, of his own family, not with memories of Real Thing's bubbling at the back of his mind.

"It's even more beautiful at night," Namine whispered, coming to stand next to him. She reached out to finger one of the ornaments—a bear holding the number three, for whatever reason. There'd been a story behind each ornament, but there had been too many to keep track of them all. He resolved to ask Aerith about at least one every day for the rest of the month, or however long the tree stayed up.

"Is it?" he asked, sparing a glance down at Namine.

Namine nodded. "Yeah, because the lights stand out more."

After lunch they went shopping for ornaments, which took them to Traverse Town after a stop at the grocery store for candy. Leon explained that it would be easier to just go to Traverse Town, seeing as they'd bought ornaments from the holiday store before.

When Riku asked Aerith why they were even buying new ornaments, seeing as it looked like she had  _plenty,_ she broke into a small, sad smile. "Zack started the tradition," she explained. "He'd buy me one every year, and I started buying him one in return, and now it's just… what we do. We each buy a new ornament for the tree each year."

It was a nice tradition, Riku figured, and he told Aerith that. Her smile widened, briefly, but she headed off to examine ornaments in a hurry.

Riku and Namine settled for wandering around the store while everyone else looked at ornaments. Most of the time was spent baffling at some of the sillier Christmas traditions, though Riku did quietly ask for Namine to further explain Christmas to him. He understood it, at its base, but only through memories that weren't his. He wanted to know it through his own eyes.

"Aren't you two going to pick out ornaments?" Aerith asked, pulling their attention away from a rather ugly Christmas sweater. Riku stared at her in surprise. They were supposed to pick out ornaments, too?

"Can we?" Namine asked. Aerith nodded. Namine beamed and hurried over to where the ornaments were—from the way she moved, it was like she had the one she wanted already picked out, and was only moving to get her hands on it.

Riku didn't move, though. He stayed where he stood, swallowing hard. "Are you… are you sure?" he asked. He didn't want to intrude on their Christmas. Just  _being_ in their house had to be intruding enough, even if they'd accepted him and Namine with open arms.

"Of course I'm sure," Aerith said. She slowly folded her hands together, regarding him with a stern look. Anyone other than him would've pegged it as motherly. "You're family, aren't you? Family gets ornaments."

"I- I don't have the munny with me to—"

"I never asked you to pay."

Riku felt his cheeks grow very hot. It was a struggle to look Aerith in the eyes now, even if there was a warmth about to burst in his chest. "Are you sure?" was all he could ask again.

"Go get yourself an ornament, Riku."

The grin finally broke across his lips. "Thank you." He meant to thank her for much more than the ornament.

There were many ornaments to choose from. Riku was drawn at first to a simple one shaped like a star, which he considered for quite a few minutes. Yuffie told him to stop looking at the price and get whatever, as she opened her third candy cane to stick in her mouth. He didn't have the chance to explain to her that the price wasn't making him hesitant. When he asked Namine about the ornament, she shrugged, eyes gleaming with words he knew she would not say.

"If you want it, there's nothing wrong with getting it," she told him. "It's your choice."

In the end, he put it down. It was a nice ornament, and it brought back more fond memories than it did painful ones, surprisingly, but they were still memories of another life. One he'd like to put behind him. He had his own life, his own family, and his first Christmas did not need to be overshadowed by the thought of  _her._ He put it down not with bitterness, but with a smile.  _We've both changed. We've both moved on._

After a few more minutes of futile searching, Aerith came up beside him. "Having trouble picking?"

He looked at her, and shrugged, though he meant it as a yes. There were so many, all geared towards people who had different sentiments and nostalgia than he had. He didn't understand the appeal of a moose—or perhaps it was a reindeer—made out of chocolate, nor of the green character who sang, which Yuffie had picked. Namine had chosen a polar bear, though he had no idea what it meant to her. Perhaps she picked it only because she thought it was cute.

"Well, alright," Aerith said. She bent down to search on the bottom shelf. "I know it's a little untraditional, seeing as these are meant for babies, but…" She emerged holding a puppy posed next to the number one. "For your first Christmas. The series goes through five—they used to be bears, but I guess people stopped liking bears."

Riku took the ornament from her. "So I'll get one of these each year for the next five?" he asked. The bear on the tree with the number three was making much more sense.

"If that's what you want to do, yes." Aerith smiled at him. "You don't have to get this one, though, if you don't want it. It's just a suggestion."

He turned the ornament over in his hands, then slowly smiled back at her. "It's a nice suggestion. I'll get it."

**Author's Note:**

> The CD Aerith so loves is "A Celtic Heartbeat Christmas", the first track being "Na Hu O Ho" performed by Fiona Kennedy (I believe.) You can find "Na Hu O Ho" easily on youtube, but not so much the rest of the album, unfortunately.


End file.
